Dental implants are known in the art and typically include a dental anchor securely inserted into or onto the patient jawbone, and an abutment member attached to the dental anchor, for coupling a prosthodontic restoration thereon. Commonly, in the art, the abutment is affixed to the anchor through a fixation screw also known as an abutment screw.
A multitude of prefabricated abutments and implant systems of various designs are offered to clinicians in an effort to provide clinicians with necessary means to successfully restore edentulous patients.
In order to be successful, the implant anchor and all restorative devices associated therewith, should meet specific functional, biological and esthetic requirements. These requirements may be achieved if the restorative implant system, and/or devices used on the implants, adhere to major biomechanical principles, including: Preservation of implant structure; Passive retention and Passive support; Resistance form; Structural durability of the restoration; Marginal integrity and emerging profiling (marginal compliance); Retrievability and Retrofitting; Individuality; Preservation of the perio-implant tissues. Therefore, for a successful implant procedure to take place, the above mentioned biomechanical principles must be met.
A number of factors in the design of the abutments determine if a restoration can adhere to the previously mentioned biomechanical principles in order to achieve the desired functional, biological and esthetic requirements. For example, the abutment's connection to the anchor platforms has an effect on the abutment's position and stability.
Prior art abutments and/or restorative systems and/or portions thereof do not meet the above mentioned bio mechanical principals, leading to major drawbacks in the quality of the restoration. Due to these limitations, clinicians are forced to compromise the functional, biologic and esthetic requirements of the restoration. Such compromises may for example result in or lead to: shortening the survivability and/or viability of the implant, irreparable damage to host tissue; damaged implant structures, the requirement of laborious and prolong multi-stage and multiple surgical procedures, reduce access for maintenance of the host tissues, makes it very difficult and often impossible to maintain an implant's assembly elements and substantially increase costs.